Hey Guys!
Yes, yes I know! I said I would post on Tuesdays, but I just couldn't wait to post another chapter!
Thank you for all your support! As I am itching to post the next couple of chapters, we are going to have a little vote. Should I post one or two chapters every week? I have a great headstart and I could probably manage two a week, but that may also halt it a bit in the future. So what do you think?
Anyway, here is chapter 4. Sorry, that it is a bit of a short chapter.
I don't own any of the characters or Harry Potter, that is all J.K Rowling.
Please leave a comment and a review!
/Zelda
Chapter 4 - Making plans
Harry left Gringotts, still seething about Dumbledore betrayal. He never believed that the man could be so manipulative. He also felt incredibly foolish. He had always thought that Dumbledore liked him and was more of a grandfather to him. He understood now however how wrong and naive he had been and that he was simply a means to an end for the old man. A tool to be used.
After the will- reading Harry had proceeded with taking the lordship of both the Potter and Black family. In the boxes that Ugrast brought with the will, there were two rings. Both were made out of gold but one had a big red ruby and the potter family crest with two crossed spears and a griffin. The other had a black stone, probably an onyx, with the black family crest of a falcon and the family motto underneath, Toujours Pur. When Harry had put them on he had felt magic swell over him like a warm wave. It felt completely right. After signing some more documents he was now Lord Potter-Black and no longer a minor. Knowing that he now could do magic without having to worry about the ministry expelling him from school felt great.
He had also visited the Potter families' vaults, taking out some money. Griphook had informed him that the reading of Sirius's will was scheduled for a date in August and that it would be best to wait to access the Black vaults until it was read. He could still claim the title of Lord Black magically but because of legal reasons not access the vault until the will of the last descendant of the Blacks, which technically still was Sirius, had been read.
Griphook had given him what looked like a regular muggle credit card, but it was magically connected to his vault at Gringotts. It would work anywhere in the muggle world so that he didn't have to convert galleons to muggle money all the time or carry around a large sum of cash in his pocket, which was very convenient. Harry's vaults had been, except for mountains of galleons, full of different interesting objects and valuables, furniture, paintings, and jewelry. There were a lot of books that Harry would bet that Hermione would have loved to get her hand on, but he would have to come back another time to look through it all and decide which books to bring to his new home. Still, finally, all that was rightfully his was in his possession.
Harry had asked Griphook for the location of the Potter manor, as he would like to visit the family home at once. Griphook had told him that the house had been sealed for a long time and that it was under a Fidelius charm and many different powerful, ancient wards that made it impossible to find, if you are not of Potter blood or invited by the secret keeper.
"The key to get to the Potter manor is your ring", Griphook had said. "It will work as a port key. You will put some of your blood on the stone and say where you would like to travel; The Potter manor, and it should take you there. No one else will able to find it if you don't tell off the location, Lord Potter-Black. You will automatically become the secret keeper, as you wear the ring and have the blood."
Harry had thanked Griphook for his assistance and saying the correct polite farewell fraise that he hoped that Griphooks fortune would be borne by the blood of his enemies and the goblin had answered a similar fraise back, bowed low, and bid him a warm farewell.
Harry had then exited out of the bank, as its goblin magic prevented the use of magical travel within its walls, and walked to a side alley before pricking his finger, a single drop falling on the blood-red stone of his ring and saying "The Potter Manor". He instantly felt a hook behind his navel and with blue light, he for the second time that day disappeared.
Harry landed awkwardly on his arse. Bloody hell! He really hated port keys. He stood up, brushed off his clothes, and looked around. He was standing on a grass lawn that was neatly kept in front of a huge manor, stone house. He thought it looked like a castle he had seen in a fairytale book once. It had big gothic windows; a tower and one of the house wings seemed to have a glass cupola as a roof.
"Merlin", Harry whispered
"Glad you like it, kid", Azoth said like it was he who had built it. He was standing right behind him and he could hear the clicking of Azoths lighter as he lit a cigarette. "Don't just stand there, go on", the demon said.
Harry walked up stone steps and to the big front doors. It had a knocker that was in the shape of a griffin. Was he supposed to knock or just walk in? He put one of his hands on the wood of the door and suddenly it swung magically opened. He took a few hesitancy steps into the foyer. It was lit by several chandeliers and had a grand staircase in white marble.
"Hello?" Harry said unsure if anyone would even be there.
There was a soft pop and an older house elf in a scarlet uniform with a crest at the shoulder appeared. "My name be Tibby sir", it squeaked.
"Who may you be, sir?"
"Er…my name is Harry, Harry Potter".
The elf eyes got as big as saucers and made a little jump out of joy. "Master has finally come home! Master is most welcome, sir!"
"Please, call me Harry".
"Very well, Master Harry". The elf put its hands together and clapped twice. At least 10 more houseelfes appeared. "We be the house elf's that will take care of you, Master Harry. Some work in the main rooms and grounds and some in the kitchen. But Tibby will always be here for your personal needs, as you wish, Master Harry".
"Thank you, Tibby. Could you show me around please?"
"Certainly, Master", Tibby said. She clapped her hand again twice and the other elf's disappeared.
The Potter manor had three floors. The first floor with the entrance of the manor contained the forayer that Harry's fist saw walking in, a large Ballroom, Library, grand dining room, a big kitchen, and living quarters for the house-elves. The second floor contained mostly bedrooms and bathrooms, but also a large sitting room with a group of sofas before a big fireplace, some bookshelves, and a grand piano. The third floor contained some smaller bedrooms, two offices, and another Library with what looked like more obscure books. This room also held a lot of different magical objects, like Secrecy Sensors, a Probity Probe, Foe-glass and Sneakoscopes. The cellar floor was mostly for storage of food and wine. The potter manor had a quite substantially large wine cellar with both wine and mead. But what interested Harry the most on the cellar floor was a large stone room with all kinds of weapons on the walls, the dueling room. It really was perfect for practicing all kinds of different dueling. There were swords, knives, and axes of all kinds, books about hexes and useful defensive spells, and several magical dummies to practice spells on. There was also exercise equipment in several bars and different kinds of weights. He would spend a lot of time down here.
"So", Azoth said and rubbed his hands together sometime later when they were seated in the comfortable sofa in the sitting room on the second floor, drinking tea and eating sandwiches that Tibby brought them. Or well, Harry did.
"There are a couple of things we need to discuss and that you now need to do." Azoth said. " As I said in our earlier conversation, you will need to learn to control your magic. We will start training tomorrow. You will also have to start studying, the more you know the better, and here and in the Potter and Black vault you have all the information that you will need".
Harry groaned.
"But Albus, what do you mean that Harry is gone? Why isn't he at his aunt and uncles?"
The order of the Phoenix, the members of the Weasley family and Hermione Granger was sitting in the dark kitchen at nr 12 Grimmauld Place, the orders current headquarters. Molly Weasley had just pun on a kettle of tea on the table when Albus Dumbledore came with the worrying news that Harry had seemed disappeared out of thin air and that nobody knew where he was. Albus looked older than he had in several years, worried and tired. But it was Remus Lupin who answered Molly's question.
"We have looked everywhere but we just can't find him. There are signs of his magic at the Dursley and in his bedroom, but that is it. He has just vanished."
"The muggles thinks that he ran away, but we don't think so", said the woman with the pink hair, Tonks. "He knew the importance of the blood protection for his safety."
"Do you think that the death eaters have taken him" the youngest boy Weasley, Ron asked and put an arm around Hermione's shoulders. He had started to cry silently.
"We can not be certain of anything, but of course it is a possibility", Dumbledore said sadly
"What can we do?" Ron said determinately. He looked at the faces of his worried parents and then at his older brothers, Bill and Charlie. They had just come home on leave from work abroad to help the order. They had stayed at the burrow but been called in with news of Harry's disappearance. They also looked worried, a look that Ron didn't often see on their faces. Fred and George, his older twin brothers, who had been goofing around with two of their fake wands, had suddenly stopped when they heard the grim news, and now had the same determination on their faces as Ron. They nodded approvingly at Ron's question.
"I'm afraid I do not know, accept keep looking and hoping that Harry is safe", Dumbledore said sadly
"But there must me some way to track Harry, some clues of where he's got to", Fred asked
"I'm afraid that we couldn't find any at all, that is what's so strange." Remus said.
"But what about the trace? Harry must still have the trace on him?" Hermione said sniffling.
"Yeah, he should. I checked and no magic of anyone else had been detected in that house, no apparition and no port key, but also no trace of Harry's magic leaving the home. It was still just a small trace left of his magic signature there", said Tonks.
Ron swore under his breath. Hermione started to cry now in earnest and so was Ron's sister, Ginny. Everyone sat silently to let the information sink in. Where was he? What had happened to him and what if he was in mortal danger?
"Oh, Harry" Molly said in a sad and worried whisper. "Please, be alright!"
